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In an article published on Monday in the Norwegian magazine “Humanist,” professor Johan Galtung, founder of the academic discipline of “peace and conflict studies” and an “Alternative Nobel Prize” laureate, lashed out against what he claims to be the “Jewish control” over mass media.

Quoting an Pak Alert Press article republished on an internet blog focusing on Islamic issues, Galtung claims that “Six Jewish companies own 96% of the world’s media” and that “the directors of the three largest media conglomerates, Walt Disney, Time Warner and Viacom, are Jews; as were the three largest TV channels ABC, CBS and NBC before they joined the conglomerates.”

Galtung moves on to cite a long list of American newspapers, publishing houses and movie production companies, which he states are under Jewish ownership.

“Is this a coincidence for 1.9 percent of the US population?” the Norwegian professor asks, adding that Jewish ownership is the equivalent of “Jewish control.” He then goes on to link this to so-called-bias in Middle East coverage, pointing to several Jews who have stated that “Jews that write in the media have a role of defending Israel.”

The 82-year-old also applauds the near-complete disappearance of anti-Semitism from US discourse. Although he also warns that it might resurface, due to a such “facts” as he presents becoming taboo in the discourse.

In the article, entitled “On clear and diffuse connections,” he points to the criticism leveled at Swedish professor Ola Tunander after Tunander suggesting that the coinciding date of the Knights Templars’ capture of Jerusalem in 1099 and the bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946 might imply a Mossad connection to the 22/7 terror attacks that killed 77 in Oslo last year.

Johan Galtung (photo credit: CC BY-SA Seadart, Wikipedia)

When professor Tunander’s controversial theory was published in the academic publication “Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift” in December of last year, he received broad criticism in Norway.

Galtung has also been criticized for suggesting connections between the 22/7 terror attacks and Jewish influence. This happened after a lecture, given at the University of Oslo in September last year, during which he claimed that the Freemason movement, which terrorist Anders Behring Breivik was a member of, had a “clear Jewish fundament.”

Monday’s article was in response to an essay written by journalist John Færseth, who pointed to the problematic nature of making connections such as the one Galtung had made in his lecture.

With these thoughts, Galtung is playing with conspiracy and anti-Semitic ideas, Færseth claimed.

Despite publishing the piece, the editor-in-chief of “Humanist,” Didrik Søderlind, also strongly distanced himself from Galtung’s article, publishing the following note in the opening page of the issue:

Under normal circumstances “Humanist” would not publish contributions with such extremist content as Johan Galtung presents here. It is, however, of public interest to observe the ideological landscape that such a famous Norwegian is moving into.

It has for long been known that Galtung’s thinking has been moving in a frightening direction, but few have anticipated that it would become this extreme. The text not only constitutes intellectual and moral suicide, but is also a wake-up call to us all.

Galtung is the author of several seminal books within his field of research. In recent years he has channelled most of his efforts into Transcend, an organization devoted to “conflict transformation by peaceful means.”

About the Author

Karin Abraham is a freelance journalist to the Norwegian press based in Jerusalem. She is also the author of a book on the Israeli peace movement: "Israel; When the Peace Movement disappeared," which was published in Norwegian in 2011.